National Assembly Continues Debate on Finance Bill

Islamabad, May 09, 2018 (PPI-OT): The National Assembly continued general discussion on the Annual Budget 2018-19 on Wednesday, observes Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) in its daily Factsheet.

Following are key observations of the proceedings during the seventh sitting of the 56th session:

Members’ Participation

The National Assembly met for five hours and 40 minutes.

The sitting started at 1043 hours against the scheduled time of 1030 hours.

The Speaker presided over the sitting for an hour and 28 minutes, Deputy Speaker for two hours and four minutes while the rest of the proceedings were chaired by a member of Panel of Chairpersons.

The Leader of the House (Prime Minister) attended the sitting for 42 minutes.

The Leader of the Opposition was not present.

As many as 41 lawmakers (12%) were present at the outset and 12 (4%) at the adjournment of sitting.

The parliamentary leaders of PkMAP, PPPP, PML-Z, JI and APML attended the sitting.

Six minority lawmakers were present.

Representation and Responsiveness

Twenty-six lawmakers took part in the debate on annual budget 2018-19. The discussion continued for four hours and 20 minutes.

Order and Institutionalization

Fifteen lawmakers spoke on as many points of order consuming 61 minutes of the proceedings. These were mainly about adopting a motion to constitute special committee which may summon Chairman NAB and investigate him about his orders to investigate money laundering allegations against Nawaz Sharif.

A lawmaker spoke on a point of personal explanation for two minutes.

Transparency

Orders of the Day was available to the legislators, observers and public.